-=> Quoting Gregory Procter to Alec Cameron <=-
          [ ... text deleted ... ]
 GP> We, (and I include the USA, Europe, the UK and NZ etc.) have
 GP> an overall drop in living standards, lower average wages,
 GP> ever increasing unemployment and an ideological cry for
 GP> higher productivity from less and less workers over the last
 GP> few years. As total production falls year by year, either we
 GP> accept the increasing problems and social costs of more and
 GP> more unproductive people dragging down the rest, or we come up
 GP> with a new ideology to allow them to work at differently
 GP> productive tasks. There are several other alternatives,
 GP> but Adolf, Idi and co. aren't generally popular at present!
       I can't speak for NZ or the other countries you mention
except the USA, but in the USA unemployment has been steadily
declining and is just about at what most economists feel is
basically zero (there are always some people temporarily
unemployed because they are between jobs, moving from one city
to another, or something similar).
       So it is not correct that in the USA there are more
unproductive people dragging down the rest, except perhaps in
the sense that populations are increasing and so the absolute
number of all people, productive and unproductive, is
increasing.
       In the USA, total production has been increasing, not
falling, year by year.
       It has been noted with some interest (and puzzlement)
by economists that in spite of the repeated downsizing of
work forces in the USA there has been a decrease, not increase,
in unemployment.  So what is happening is not a new ideology
to allow these downsized people to work at other tasks, but
that they are finding productive work under the present
ideology.
       This does not make it any less painful for the person
who is downsized, but overall it seems to be working.
       This is indeed relevant to motive power on railroads.
Many authorities have noted that the steam engine developed
as comparatively a simple machine in the USA with rather
broad tolerances, while in the UK they were often precision
machines requiring skilled machinists and constant attention.
       The reason often cited for this is that in the USA
the skilled machinist was relatively less common and
commanded a substantially higher pay than in the UK, where
there was an abundance of skilled artisan who as a result
could be hired for less to maintain the high-maintenance
UK locomotives.
 
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 [NR]
--- FLAME v1.1
---------------